Upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur from command-line?

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Level 1

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Upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur from command-line?

How can I fully automate an upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur on our 300 Mac CI machines?

I already know that there is a manual way to upgrade to Big Sur using a GUI app (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475).

I can download the "Install macOS Big Sur" application into the /Applications folder in an automated way, that's not a problem.

I can also even have the install begin and auto-accept the license, etc using this command:

sudo "/Applications/Install macOS Big Sur.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall" --agreetolicense --forcequitapps --nointeraction

However, the processes that I care about (buildkite-agent) don't start automatically until I perform a login through the standard login screen over VNC. After logging in through VNC (using the above command) there is a flurry of activity for a couple minutes and then the computer is back working 100%

Unfortunately, a login with a standard SSH connection will work to kick off the rest of the post-upgrade (or mid-upgrade as it appears) work.

Posted on Jun 8, 2021 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,296 points

Jun 8, 2021 10:56 AM in response to steven-324

You may want to consider a mobile device management tool such as JAMF.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,206 points

Jun 8, 2021 11:00 AM in response to steven-324

Something to consider is that on an Intel platform, the Big Sur installation does not pop a login window and expects the user password before proceeding with the installation. On Apple Silicon devices, it does expect this user interaction as part of the installation process.

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Answer 3

steven-324 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2021 5:28 PM in response to VikingOSX

I'm not really sure what you mean by this because:

I can run the above command with just `sudo`
Even on Intel machines I still need the user interaction I referred to with either the GUI install app or a login through the normal login screen over VNC

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Answer 4

steven-324 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 8, 2021 5:29 PM in response to a brody

I appreciate your suggestion, but can you confirm that JAMF can perform a full automated upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur? Because if it can, that means that it's possible to do it with just our own MDM and device management tooling.

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Upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur from command-line?

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